Cinema and the City:
An international, three-day conference to be held at
The Centre for Film Studies,
University College Dublin
12 - 14 March 1999

Call for Papers:

The Centre for Film Studies, is making a call for papers for its Cinema and
the City international conference to be held at University College Dublin,
Friday 12 March to Sunday 14 March 1999.

In the final year of the millenium, the conference will examine the history
of representations of urban space in narrative cinema (broadly defined), the
relationship between cinema and architecture, the modern and post-modern
city, urban alienation, social conflict, and escapism.

It will analyse the city in narrative cinema as a site of play, wonder and
magic, social cohesion and productivity, focusing, for example, on the
suburban family home as a zone of stability and harmony. It will also
examine the city in narrative cinema as a space of ideological conflict
between, for example, corporate, military and governmental power and radical
social formations, subcultures and the underclass. The conference will seek
to explore and define likely representations of the city in these terms in
the 21st century.

Finally, the conference will give attention to the relationship of the
Cinema and the City at the levels of production, distribution, exhibition,
and reception - examining the changing historical role and operation of the
cinema in the urban/suburban marketplace. Of particular interest will be the
relationship between these objective historical developments and their
articulation in terms of cinematic theme and form - for example, in the case
of the drive-in cinema.

Proposals for papers are invited in the following areas:

Cinema, Architecture, and Capitalism
The Human Body in the City
Mobility, Escape, and Urban Alienation
Utopian and Dystopian Visions of Urban Space
the City and the Country - the Natural vs. the Built-Environment
Suburbia and the Cinema - Histories and Representations
Local histories of particular film industries and their home cities
the City as Cinema Marketplace - Reception and Consumption
Contributions are specifically sought from the following disciplines
(although interested speakers from other disciplines, whose work relates
substantially to film, will be considered):
Film Studies, Communications and Media Studies, Cultural Studies, Art
History, Architecture, American Studies, Politics and Political History.

Papers will be of 30 minutes duration each. Additionally, there will be one
graduate session in which papers will be of 20 minutes duration each.

It is anticipated that selected papers from the conference will be published
in book form. Further details will be available shortly.

Abstracts of 300 words should be addressed to the conference organisers at
the following address, to arrive no later than 20 November 1998:

Post:

Mark Shiel and Tony Fitzmaurice,
The Cinema and the City Conference,
Centre for Film Studies,
University College Dublin,
Belfield, Dublin 4,
Ireland.

The Centre for Film Studies is located on the Belfield campus of University
College Dublin which is situated approximately two miles from Dublin city
centre and is excellently provided for by all forms of transport.

Accommodation for participants and attendees at the conference is available
at a number of convenient locations:

Local and City Centre Hotels
eg. The Montrose Hotel, beside UCD Belfield campus: 62 single, 67pp double
eg. Harding's Hotel, in the city centre's Temple Bar district: 38 single, 55
double.
eg. Jury's Christchurch Inn, in the city centre: 62 single, 62 double.
Those who wish to make their own accommodation arrangements are advised to
contact the Dublin Tourist Information Centre (01-6057700 or 6057777) which
operates an accommodation-booking hotline service.
Additionally, these sites are useful for information on Dublin, and
accommodation in the city:http://www.city.net/countries/irelandhttp://doras.tinet.ie/Doras.nsf/Indexhttp://www.irish-insight.com/
All participants and attendees are advised to make arrangements for
accommodation in Dublin as early as possible.

Visits and trips will be organised to the following places of interest
according to demand:

Ardmore Studios, Ireland's premier film production facility located on the
outskirts of Dublin city in the town of Bray;
Dublin Castle, and Trinity College Dublin (http://www.tcd.ie/);
St. Patrick's Cathedral, and Christchurch Cathedral;
The James Joyce Centre and the James Joyce Tower
(http://www.jamesjoyce.ie/);
the National Museum of Ireland;
the National Gallery of Ireland.